Amazon Kindle for BlackBerry 10 now available

Announced at the BlackBerry launch event in January, the Amazon Kindle app for BlackBerry 10 is now available. The Kindle app lets you browse, purchase and view books, magazines and newspapers right on your BlackBerry 10 device. With Kindle you can also take advantage of Whispersync to keep all of your books synched up across your devices including bookmarks, notes and highlights.

Other features include:

Read Free Books—Choose from thousands of free ebooks such as Pride & Prejudice or The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

Shop for Books—Easily shop for ebooks, including new releases and New York Times Best Sellers.

Use the Built-In Dictionary, Google, and Wikipedia—The Kindle app has a built-in dictionary that allows you to look up words instantly while you’re reading your ebooks. Simply tap and hold a word to view its definition or use the Google and Wikipedia links to get more information.

Sync Your eBooks—The Kindle app lets you read the same book across devices and automatically syncs where you left off so you can start reading on one device and pick up where you left off on another device. The app syncs your furthest page read, bookmarks, notes, and highlights between Android, PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, BlackBerry, Windows Phone 7/8, Kindle Cloud Reader, and any of our Kindle devices using our Whispersync technology.

Sample Books Before You Buy—Read the first chapter of a book for free before you decide to buy.

Reader comments

Amazon Kindle for BlackBerry 10 now available

It works OK, but it keeps adding files labeled "android" to my phone, and causes a bunch of pictures of blank pages to show up in them! Not only that, but now Amazon is convinced I'm an Android owner and keeps shoveling Android marketing at me. I might uninstall this until they come out with a true BB app.

I read my KOBO books on my Z10. I do have the Kindle app on my Z10 but I am also reading my KOBO library using the Kobo instant reader web app. Has the features and functions I need for basic reading. See http://read.kobobooks.com/ and give it a try. Prefer my Playbook but at times it nice to have access on my Z10 when I am out and about.

I found the app to be very snappy and fast at turning pages. Though I haven't used it too much... so glad that android emulation is much better on the Z10 than on the PlayBook... looking forward for more native apps, however.

So I hear from a lot of people above that it doesn't run that well.
But it doesn't run at all on my Z10 :( Can't get passed the android start-up screen.
Way to go to make an first impression with a crappy port, go native or go home.

Its like going to a job interview:

- mr. A Droidport shows up but totally leaves a bad first impression behind because it's got nothing fancy, just the bare minimum required for the job but still somehow sometimes fails to deliver. All the while people are wondering why they hired him in the first place, just a tid a bit more things are getting done, but at the expense of unsatisfied customers with enormous headaches.

- Mr. N. Attive, said he was coming but rescheduled his appointment, told the hiring firm that he was working on smoothing things out. Now the hiring firm was doubting on what to to but then finally N.Attive showed up, making the recruiters wear sunglasses. So flashy and smooth, right tool for the job kind of thing. NAILED IT. Customer satisfaction goes up, productivity is increased and everybody feels good. And at the end of the day, everybody is making more money.

I for one am not going to invest in anything (in this case books) that is not native for the platform I am using.
Most cheap fixes will cost you more in the endgame.

As has been stated, it's not native, but it works. I'm able to read my books, bookmark, hilite, look up words in the dictionary, etc etc. I would prefer an official PlayBook version for the increased screen real estate, but I will definitely use the Kindle App on my Z10.

Whether its a port or native, at this point in the game, BB needs to simply have the apps available!! Get people on board BB10 and then start pushing for native (if they even need to push at that point). I support BB10 and I'm happy they are exploring all resources to remain in the game. Once they have their footing, then they can start to go on the offensive.

Good work with all the apps coming BB...keep them coming! (Now we just need the 10.1 and JB update to make things even better).

I don't use the Kindle service from Amazon anyways so this doesn't concern me. All my eBooks are on Kobo so I'm hoping Kobo gets their act together and releases a BlackBerry 10 optimized version of the Kobo app soon.

Now I have confirmed that someone somewhere is paying people to ruin BlackBerry. Instagram has refused to show up, so has Netflix. Kindle is an android port and so will Skype be......if these big names won't develop and chose to port android versions, what do we expect from unknown app developers who would put rubbish on here for people they think are desperate? My only consolation is..... I don't use any of them.

I think I'm finally tipped over from the Q to the Z... Reading books on the Z would be a lot more pleasant, though the Q has bigger screen real estate than my current 9700(!) which I'm plenty fine with.

Your post elsewhere here says graphics are terrible and slow functioning, not the case for me at all.

"It's not a great port" does not exactly share the experience.

I guess the motto has to be, you will only find out by trying it for yourself. Obviously, your mileage may vary due to network / carrier and variant of phone. (We still say 'mileage' here even though we've been using kilometres for a long time.)

It seems to work fine for me, but I don't have a lot of content yet, loaded up a free book on knots and rope splicing. Graphics crisp as can be, and it's fast. I don't know what it's being compared to to earn the labels terrible and slow.

It works fine, as did the Kindle sideloads I used on my Z10 and Playbook. My experience is that this port seems a little more sluggish than my sideload, but also seems a bit newer. I will retain the port for now, but I mainly use MoonReader sideload. It's my favorite reader. Only issue with MoonReader is the sideload only works with epub, but no problem, Calibre converts all my mobi's just fine to epub.

Nice to have it available in BlackBerry World. I'm not sure how often I will read on my Z10, but having the option available is a good thing. I'll probably continue to read via the side-loaded version on my PlayBook (taking advantage of the 7" screen).

Great! Slow to start, but flows nicely when open. Only minor gripe is it doesn't show the book covers on the home screen, but does elsewhere. Not a major issue. Had this side loaded on my PlayBook, but recently did a wipe on it and hadn't got round to side loading it again. Now I won't have too! : )

I don't use it - waiting for Kobo - but I know it's a widely-desired app, so glad see it finally arrive. One more popular app crossed off!

It's surprising that it's an Android port, though as has been suggested multiple times it may be an interim measure. At least it's one less sideload needed. Amazon can certainly afford to build a native version!

Been using the sideload on both my Playbook and Z10 for sometime, though I actually prefer MoonReader. Nice to see Kindle ported. Feels a bit slow compared to my sideload, but looks like new version too, so it's ok. I noticed under 'About' that there are warning signs next to CPU and RAM. Any idea what that's about?

Oh and yes...it's a port... ooooh, It was a sideload...oooh. I love having that as an option for when there is not other way to have an app.

ah, yes, I noticed that. I get what you mean. I tried some data monitor sideloads, but though they open, they show no usage, I guess for same reason - not fully accessing relevant areas of the hardware/system. thanks.

Younwant be very technical there? Despites high level calls are available both in Linux and Qnx, some functions are not behaving the or not supporting the same parameters. A lazzy port will return 0. A more extensive port will reimplement. Note however that these are generally use to deal with fragmented oses with lowend chips and trim down the app or help reporting trouble, we aremtalking android there... That obviously isnt a concern for the z10. Sorry for the typos. Typed from an ipad mini, in the abscence of updated bb10 tablets...

I don't even see CPU and RAM under 'About', let alone any warnings. Different variant of phone perhaps.

With 4 active frames, 1 of them Kindle, I see in Settings:
Total Memory 2GB, Free Memory 923.1 MB
Total Storage 16 GB, Free 8.6 GB

One thing I love about Android Player, for whatever small consolation it is for those opposed to non-native -- the diagonal swipe (left or right) from bottom bezel to go 'Back'. I don't know why that didn't become a standard gesture in native apps.

Without it companies probably wouldn't have done anything for BB10 at all. At least this way, if many people download the app and there's lots of feedback for "Make a native BB10 version", they [Amazon or whoever else] have the numbers to prove it a worthwhile venture to do.

Nah, with the Android Player BlackBerry cracked the chicken and egg riddle. Nobody will buy a phone with no apps, and nobody will spend a lot of money building an app for a phone with no users. Android Player brings big-name apps, which brings users, which causes developers to pay attention to the platform and improve their apps. And the best way to approve an Android app on BB10 is to take it native. It's brilliant if you ask me.

The Android player is one reason I am leaning toward getting a Z10. That and the Hub. I'm on webOS now. Ask any current or former webOS enthusiast if they would want Android player on their phone. A vast majority would say 'YES!'.

Very excited! You people of north america probably don't know what it means for, like, Germans. Other than iOS, the best German newspapers have no App even for Android, let alone BlackBerry. The cool thing is Kindle has them and that way it is now available for BB10 devices as well. I'm happy but PlayBook app needs to finally arrive, after all these years of broken promise...

Find out what?? That its an Android port just like all PlayBook owners have been using since way before anyone even knew what a Z10 looked like? Or is this Android port more "real" than the PlayBook one?

I'm in the same situation as Easy-G. Never used Kindle, when PlayBook launched with Kobo, I bought a number of books through them. All my content is in Kobo, unless the Kindle reader can manage my Kobo content, they missed the boat on having me as a customer. I'm waiting for Kobo on BB10.

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